EU+US It it worth it to replace non BoE slots with different armor type BoE's

[Melvin]

I was wondering if it would be worth it to pick up some leather or mail to replace the slots i have missing on my blood dk or would the loss from not having full plate out weigh the gain from the mail/leather BoE'S.

Thanks!

 

[Tom Ganks]

I think it really depends on weather or not this boe has enough of a certain stat you are looking for. I've seen enh shamans go cloth gloves for the mastery. But if it doesnt, u may wanna stick with 800 quest blues, or hfc epics

 

[Warglaive]

Other than stamina, what are you trying to gain on a blood DK that's "worth" losing armor and 5% main stat + slot main stat?

And if it's just stamina... exactly how much is it?

 

[DeLindsay]

IMHO it's not worth it unless you fit the specific Class/Spec that gains the use out of everything from the lesser Armor type and you're using more than 1 since the 5% Main Stat loss may not be made up with only a single item. Some of the Class/Specs I'm referring to are:

Shockadin (wearing literally everything, full BoE's except the Artifact Weapon).
Hunter (Mail + Leather, but not Cloth).
Shaman (Mail + Leather for Enh / Mail + Leather + Cloth for Ele & Resto).
Boomkin/Tree (Leather + Cloth).
Mistweaver (Leather + Cloth).

The one caveat I'd say to the above list is Six-Feather Fan as it has use in all Classes/Specs, especially if you get one with a Socket and Leech. To a Lesser extent Marfisi's Giant Censer and Eyasu's Mulligan have their uses on non-Main Stat Classes/Specs.

 

[vic6string]

The 5% main stat can actually be made up for on one single item (especially if you are talking about chest/head/pants). My Hunter is rocking leather and mail and has 13592 agility. if I took away the leather chest, shoulder, and wrists, and went back to my 715ish ilvl mail pieces for the 5%, he'd be below 12000 agility (with the bonus 5%) and he'd have substantially lower secondaries. Those leather pieces aren't even particularly high ilvl (850 shoulder, 840 chest, 835 wrists with no tertiary stats). If I went to higher ilvl pieces or pieces with leech or sockets, I could get even more ridiculously OP. My unbuffed secondaries with mixed pieces: 49% crit/haste, 79% mastery, 18% leech, 21% vers. Those would be MUCH lower with only mail. This toon wipes the floor with Legion dungeons and doesn't have much trouble with 110 rares in Suramar. It's also been slaughtering lesser geared 110's and absolutely wipes the floor with leveling toons below 106.

That said, I am not sure about Blood DK (or any strength toons) mixing gear because you lose out on the strength. Even if the secondaries shoot up (which they will) there is no way to make up for the strength. If you do it, you'd want to do at least a couple of pieces, and you'd want them to be the highest ilvl possible, and/or have sockets and preferably leech to make up for the lost strength. That would give you a toon that is virtually unkillable, but the downside would be it would take you forever to kill stuff. My suggestion, if gold isn't really an issue, get a couple of pieces: leather chest and mail belt, since they tend to be the cheapest and they still have decent armor, and try it out. If you keep your eyes on the AH, it is easy to find those two for 20k each or less at 835, and there are often pieces with sockets for the same price. You might find that sometimes you want to kill quicker, but other times you want the survivability. That is what I plan on doing with my plate toon when I make it.

 

[godroad]

Does anyone know about instanced pvp? When you're in a BG, does it just check the ilvl, then applies the 5% stat buff if you have the appropriate armor proficiency equipped? Or would a hunter wearing 1 cloth item have 1 item less of agility in the finally calculation?

 

[Warglaive]

it would take 50 average ilvl to account for a 5% loss for wrong armor type. Average... not a likely result.

edit- in instanced PvP, that is.

 

[DeLindsay]

Does anyone know about instanced pvp? When you're in a BG, does it just check the ilvl, then applies the 5% stat buff if you have the appropriate armor proficiency equipped? Or would a hunter wearing 1 cloth item have 1 item less of agility in the finally calculation?

it would take 50 average ilvl to account for a 5% loss for wrong armor type. Average... not a likely result.

edit- in instanced PvP, that is.

To make @Warglaive point more clear, it would take 800 iLvL HIGHER (*50 Average x 16 Slots) than what you had equipped before to account for the 5% Main Stat loss in iPvP. There's literally no way to get that on one single item but you could with enough BoE's of different Armor types, especially for Plate wearers.

*To gain 1 Average iLvL you must increase your total iLvL by 16 because there are 16 Slots used in the calculation for Average iLvL. Since 7.0, for every 1 Average iLvL you increase you gain 0.1% Stats in iPvP, hence 50 Average for 5% Main Stat.

 

[godroad]

Thanks guys! Didn't think of it like that :/